Post 459: The Flames

Stardate: 70926.1800
Title: The Flames
Author: Ensign Rada Dengar
Scene: Rada's Quarters
Time: Following "After Impact"
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Rada held in his hand a thing of great beauty and of even greater danger, of
a form that had existed for longer that any man could know and a form which could never truly be destroyed.

It could hold the key to greatness or could bring about the downfall of the
greatest there have ever been.

He held in his hand. . .an unopened envelope.

Rada had always seen a letter as being simultaneously the best and the worst method of communication imaginable. A letter gives away only that which you want the world to see; no one sees your mistakes in a letter but rather just your victories. He had spent weeks working on sentences in letters which in life, he would have had less than a second to prepare. Truly they could represent a great relief from the pressures of the real world.

However this was now not the case. Rada had always felt that every word written had the potential to start a great fire and that a letter sent leaves no short trail for the flames to burn their way back home. At the same time a letter received can bring you a new and more destructive fire than you can ever imagine from a place that shall not fear the burn. Rada knew however that this letter came with a fire which he had known, a fire which he had seen lit long ago.

Rada knew that if he opened this letter that the flames would be those of a hell which beckoned his return to stand once again by the devil's side. He knew that they would not wait, and that they would burn now hotter than they ever had before. Rada knew he could not face them alone and that the probable consequences to all who stood with him would be immeasurable devastation. At the same time he knew that the consequences if they were not stopped would be far worse and affect far more than Rada could ever imagine.

He took a slow deep breath in and slid his finger slowly underneath the rim of the envelope stopping to consider whether this was a door he wished once more to open. He lifted the single sheet of fine paper out and unfolded it with the greatest of caution, it said nothing but it said everything. It said exactly what he had known it would. What it had to say. It said the only words which could possibly have been included in a letter which carries that symbol.

It was time.

Ensign Rada Dengar
Engineering Officer